CHRISTINE Ohuruogu is preparing to put her Olympic glory behind her and return to intense training ahead of the new season. The 24-year-old became the first British woman to win the Olympic 400 metres title when she triumphed in Beijing in the summer.
That success was tinged with controversy following her one-year ban for three missed out-of-competition drugs tests.
While the champion is rightly proud of her achievement in China, she knows it is now in the past.
Ohuruogu said: "It's time
to move on again and now it's basically going to be all about getting the body back into running order and preparing for another long season ahead.
"It's just a few weeks away now and I'll be training hard to get back into competition. Clearly there is a programme of competitive events drawn up, but at this stage we – me and my coach – don't like too much detail.
"All I'll be thinking about is getting my focus back on training, because that is exactly what I want to do. Once you get the body strong again the competition bit will look after itself – and should be easier.
"You can tell when you've arrived back at that stage and once that moment comes for me everything else stops – because this is my job now."
Ohuruogu is going back to school as part of a Team Superschools initiative for Olympians to visit more than 500 schools each year until the Games come to London.
The target, backed by The Paper Company Ltd as exclusive partners, is to make 2,012 visits to different schools between now and 2012, and raise awareness of joy in sport among children.
Ohuruogu is a leading light in a group of top athletes which former sprinter Darren Campbell has assembled to maintain the feelgood factor from last summer's Games, and make sure it lasts all the way to when London plays host.
The team also includes Ashia Hansen, the recently retired former indoor triple jump world champion, Katharine Merry, ex-Olympic 400m bronze medallist, Christian Malcolm, fifth in the 200m in Beijing, and GB gymnast Ryan Bradley.
Ohuruogu said: "Of course you want to win but you've also got to enjoy it, and if I have a message to younger people now it is that you really can enjoy sport. It is not all pain and hard work.
"People ask me if there will be pressure on me now that I've won an Olympic gold medal. But I'm a very simple person. All I'm interested in is to keep enjoying what I do and to do it for as long as possible."
The full article contains 450 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
